Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

The Life ofFaith. habit (which I name that the Reader may chufe his titic,that we may not quarrel about meer words.) The firtt Principle of blinds in us, is called in Scripture, The Spirit of Chriff or ofGod : In the unity of this arc three efl'ential principles, Life, Light and Love; which are the immediate effet`fs of the hea- venlyor divine influx upon the three natural faculties of the foul, to rotific them, viz, on theVital Power, the Intelleií and the Wig: And are called the Spirit, as the Sunfhine in the room is called, the Sun : Now as the Sunfhine on the earth and plants, is all one in it feltas emitted from the Sun, Light, Heat and Moving force concurring, and yet is not equally of fellive, bccaufeof the difference of Recipients; and yet every . vegetative receiveth a real effect of the Heat andMotionat the lea; and tcnfitives alto of the Light ; but lo that onemay (by incapacity) have lets ofthe beat,and another lets of the motion, and another lets of the Lght ; fo I conceive that Wifdom, Lave and Life(or Power) arc given by the Spirit toevery Chrifian But fo that in the very firft Principle or effect of the Spirit,, one may have more Light, another more Love, andanother more Life : Bus this it accidental from forme obftrudion in the Receiver; otherwife the Spirir would be equally a Spirit of Power (or Life) and ofLove, and of aéfound mind (or Light.) But befidcs this New Moral Power, or Inclination, or Vii verfal Radical Habit, there are abundance of particular Habits of Grace and Duty, much more properly called Habits, and lets properly called the Vital or Potential Principles of the New Creature : There is.a particular Habit ofHumility, and another of Peaceablenefs, ofGentlenefs, of Patience, of Love to one another, of Love to the WordofGod ; and many habits of: Love to feveral truths and duties: a habit ofdefire, yea many, as there are many different objc b defiled; there is a habit of praying, ofmeditating, ofthankfgiving, ofmercy, ofchattity, of temperance, ofdiligence, &c. The ads Would not vary as they do, if there were not a variety and difpofition in theft Habits ; which appear to us only in their ails. We múfl go againtt Scripture, reafon, and the manifold hourly, experience of sur felves, and all the Chrittians in the world, ifwe will fay that all theft graces and duties are equal in the Habit in every Chriflian. How impotent are Come in bridling a pa(üon, or P f f 3 brtdhcr. 413

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